Genesis 2:7 states, “God formed the man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” The word, “man,” was translated from the Hebrew word, “adam,” and the word, “ground,” was translated from the Hebrew word, “adamah.” Thus, the reason why men who have the seal of God on their foreheads are personified by symbols that describe the land in Revelation 9:4 is because man was literally created from the land.

After God created Adam, He placed him in the Garden of Eden, where he became a farmer. Genesis 2:15 states, “יהוה God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and warned them that if they were to do so, they would die. Of course, Adam and Eve did eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and as a result, they died spiritually. In other words, they committed spiritual suicide. As a result, God cursed them from the ground from which they had been created (Gen. 3:17-19) and banished them from the Garden of Eden into the land located to the East of Eden (Gen. 3:23-24).

Adam and Eve had two sons, Cain, who was a farmer, and Able, who was a shepherd. When Cain killed Able, God declared, “Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. From now on, when you till the ground, it will not yield its strength to you. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth” (Gen. 4:8-12). So, like Adam and Eve, Cain was also cursed from the ground, however, he was banished to the land located to the East of the land where Adam and Eve had been banished.

Genesis 4:16 states, “Cain went out from the presence of יהוה, and dwelt in the land of Nod, east of Eden.” There, the Scriptures tell us that he built the first city and named it Enoch, presumably for protection against anyone who would seek vengeance on him and kill him, despite the fact that יהוה had prohibited it (Gen. 4:8-14).

After the flood, Noah became a vintner, a farmer of grapes (Gen. 9:20-21). He had three sons: Japheth, Ham and Shem (Gen. 10:1). Like Noah, Shem and Japheth lived in tents (Gen. 9:21, 27), but the Scriptures are silent with regard to Ham. Yet, Ham had a son named Cush, who had a son named Nimrod, which means, “he rebelled.” Genesis 10:8-9 states, “Cush became the father of Nimrod. He began to be a mighty one in the land. He was a mighty hunter in the face of יהוה. Therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter in the face of יהוה.” The Hebrew word for the word “hunter” is “tsayid,” which is better translated “provider.” Thus, many people at that time replaced God as their provider with Nimrod, and it was in this role that he provided them with safety in large cities in opposition to God (Gen. 10:10-12).

One of the cities Nimrod built was Babel. Genesis 11:1-9 states, “The whole land was of one language and of one speech. It happened that as they traveled east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. They said one to another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. They said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top reaches to the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered over the surface of the entire land.”  יהוהcame down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men built. יהוה said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is what they begin to do. Now nothing will be withheld from them, which they intend to do. Come, let Us go down there and confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So יהוה scattered them from there, over the surface of the entire land. They stopped building the city and the tower.” Therefore, its name was called Babel,  because there יהוה confused the language of all the land. From there, יהוה scattered them over the surface of the entire land.”

Notice that a number of Noah’s descendants “traveled east.” Perhaps they were searching for the remains of the city that Cain had built before the flood, Enoch. The context seems to suggest that Noah’s ark had been directed by God to the West, and landed there, and that afterward, Ham and his descendants, including Nimrod, migrated back to the East in opposition to God. They said, “let us make a name for ourselves,” perhaps as Cain did by building Enoch.

Under Nimrod’s influence, the people built the city of Babel and its tower. No doubt the purpose of the tower was to ascend up into the heavens in a rebellion against God, just as Satan and his demons had attempted to do before the creation of man, but failed (Isa. 14:13-14). As a result of their rebellion, “… יהוה scattered them from there, over the surface of the entire land, and they stopped building the city and the tower” (Gen. 11:8).

Later, God called Abram to relocate to the west, from the city of Ur in Chaldea to the Promised Land in Canaan (Gen. 12:1-3). When Abram and Lot, his nephew, arrived in Canaan, there was strife between their herdsmen, so Abram gave Lot the option of settling to the East or to the West. Genesis 13:10-13 states, “So Lot chose the Plain of the Jordan for himself. Lot traveled east, and they separated themselves the one from the other. Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain, and moved his tent as far as Sodom. Now the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinners against יהוה.” Later, God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because He couldn’t find ten righteous people there (Gen. 19:23-25).

The ancient Israelites lived in an agricultural society. Their economy was based on the produce of the land, and ultimately God who provided it. However, in the period from about 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840, Western Civilization was transformed by the Industrial Revolution. During this period of time, industrial technologies greatly improved farming productivity. As a result of the Industrial Revolution, the number of people who worked in food production went from about 80 or 90% of the population to 2% of the population now. This shifted the economy from an agricultural economy to an industrial economy, and also caused workers to relocate from the country to the large cities. In addition, it also had a negative impact on the family, as it took many fathers and mothers out of the home and into factories.